YouTube. Need I Say More?

Okay, I know, writing an instructional technology blog entry about YouTube is kind of a cop-out. Few social media sites on the whole wide Interwebs haven proven more useful than YouTube. 

Top Five iPad Apps for Educators

Okay, I use the term "Top Five" entirely subjectively. There are probably others with higher records of sales and widespread use in the classroom. However, I have employed these five apps the most frequently and with the most success in my own classroom. Here we go...

#5- Educreations & ShowMe
What's that? I listed two different apps above? Yeah, sorry about that. While trying to rank these apps, a problem quickly emerged: they're essentially the same things.

Both Educreations and ShowMe are digital whiteboard applications which allow you to draw on the iPad as if it were that ubiquitous large board at the front of your room. If you have the right dongle for your iPad (and a digital projector), you can present this to your class via HDMI or VGA cable.

More than just being a mess-free portable whiteboard, these apps allow the user to record their lecture as they utilize their whiteboard. No more unintelligible notes or indescribable graphics to be found amidst bullet points and quotations.

Best of all, the lectures are shareable. Through the magic of internet, email, Twitter and Facebook, the recorded lectures can be given out to students who may have missed the class or require audio/visual accommodations.

#4- GoDocs
As I'll discuss in a later post, Google Docs has become an integral part of my curriculum. Computer-based group projects are an ease with Google Docs. No more, "but my partner has all the notes and they aren't here today!" The GoDocs app allows me portable access to Google Docs right from my laptop and iPad. Very nice! How much? At $4.99, this app is fairly pricey for its limited usage, but if you are as wealth-paid as this public school teacher (and obsessed with Google products), it is well worth the price


#3- Keynote
This app is simply one more example of my begrudging and reluctant transfer to the world of Apple. Though I bemoan their extraordinary profit margins and lament their child-labor practices, they do put out a good product. For only $9.99 (I seriously have a spending problem when it comes to technology), this handy little app allows me to make Keynote presentations on the fly. When my laptop dies or my iPad is the only thing within reach, it is nice to be able to employ the user-friendly interface to craft the next day's lesson. I absolutely DO NOT endorse throwing together a last-minute presentation at red lights on the way to work. 


#2- Pointer
This app is in no way flashy or exotic. The graphics seem to indicate that though it works well enough with the iPad that it was meant for the iPhone. I mean, the iPhone. However, the PowerPoint comes through the projector with crystal-clear quality and the app allows the user to click, highlight or annotate the PowerPoint wirelessly. As someone who uses PowerPoint perhaps too heavily, this app has been a little $0.99 godsend.


#1- Splashtop HD
With the steepest price tag of this top five ($19.99 for the HD version), I have found it well worth the cost. This app allows the user to wirelessly stream their desktop (or laptop if one prefers to go even smaller) to their portable device. I find this extremely useful in helping managing an effective classroom instead of being tethered to my desk.

Now, I've heard rumors of other similar apps which allow access to one's home computer from work. One such app is "LogMeIn." I, however, have not been able to get LogMeIn to work properly and have as such abandoned the process. Over the long summer days spent at the pool, though, I will probably try my hardest to get said app to function properly.

As I said before, these are simply the apps which have worked most frequently and best for my own classroom environment. Their applications beyond the classroom, however, are too numerous to count. i recommend trying these apps and similar ones for yourself. Feel free to drop me a line if you find one that works better (or is cheaper)!

A KeepVid A Day Keeps the Firewall At Bay

Before my school board so wisely began to allow teachers access through the Firewall, KeepVid was the only light in the veil of darkness of the Youtube-less classroom. In the world we live in, watching entire VHSs or DVDs in a class is seen as cumbersome, perfunctory and wasteful. YouTube often offers succinct, edited versions of longer documentaries and movies. Why show all of “Saving Private Ryan” and “Enemy at the Gates” when you can show just the scenes depicting D-Day and the Battle of Stalingrad?

For those not as fortunate as I, access to YouTube on school networks is usually a rarity. KeepVid is a simple internet-based application that offers a free, innovative alternative to showing whole videos or using proxy servers to bypass firewalls. In a manner similar to Pinterest, KeepVid allows the user to take an online video and make it their own. Usually offering a variety of file format for downloads (.mp4, .wmv, .avi, .etc), KeepVid allows the organized and forward-thinking teacher to employ YouTube without accessing YouTube.

My personal favorite aspect of KeepVid is the fact that with a download file, I can use it at anytime, nearly anywhere. A big fan of Prezi and PowerPoint/Keynote, I loathe having to "ESC" out of the window to drag over a Google Chrome window to show a video. Saving a YouTube file as .mp4 and embedding it into the PowerPoint slide, however, allows me to seamlessly integrate a one- or two-minute video clip to reinforce my lecture.

While I have little to no need for this anymore since YouTube is available in my classroom, I highly recommend for anyone who is not as blessed by their almighty and benevolent school district.

Fakebook: It's Like Facebook, But Fake

This is not my first foray into the world of Facebook alternatives. The two sites (I have heard rumors that these sites are becoming more and more ubiquitous) I have actively used in my classroom are Fakebook.com and MyFakeWall.com. I'm not entirely enthused with either one, to be honest. Their educational value, however, forces me to reconsider them. Often.

Facebook isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Students without Facebook profiles are outnumbered by their counterparts nearly 35 to 1 (I made that statistic up, but it sounds about right). Facebook, combined with text-messaging seems to be the primary method of contact for students. So why not redirect its corrupting and socially undermining aspects into educating our young?

Both sites essentially provide the basic services of Facebook without all of the intricacies of social networking. This is especially useful when studying a historical figure (or, perhaps, several). Earlier this year, my students used MyFakeWall.com to create fictional Facebook pages for Alexander the Great (see my class website for the rubric and completed examples). To be honest, I was quite impressed. Despite my lack of familiarity with the technology at the onset, the students seemed naturally adept at navigating the site.

Later on in the year, however, the falibility of MyFakeWall.com proved itself insurmountable. The sheer number of students who lost their work entirely when the page automatically refreshed was staggering. The voices of a hundred whinny fifteen-year olds rose in chorus instantaneously. As such, I was glad Fakebook was available. Fakebook.com, while not differing much from MyFakeWall in terms of content, provided a much more stable platform for the students to work with. My recommendation? If you are going to invest the time and effort in getting your students to do online research and create a project on an internet site, go with Fakebook.com.

Duh. Pinning.

Pinterest. Yes, seriously, Pinterest.

Now I know what you are thinking. Pinterest is normally associated with middle-aged housewives hoarding copious quantities of recipes and decorating tips. You’re right, actually. This stereotype about the demographic belies the true potential of this social media outlet, however.

For you readers who have yet to take the plunge into the sea of Pinterest, it is a site/application combo that allows the user to grab interesting pictures (and the sites they are located upon) and “pin” them to user-themed “boards”.  One of the most innovating features of the process is the cutesie “Pin It” application the user can apply to their bookmark bar. With just the press of a button, the Pinterest application finds the interesting pictures on the site and allows the user to share it.

While this has been used primarily to shown off one’s good sense of fashion, decoration and gastronomy, its untapped potential is still unbounded. Personally, I just began utilizing Pinterest for the classroom setting.

As I was standing in my office the other day, tapping my foot impatiently as my wife clicked aimlessly on my computer on her Pinterest boards—I will address the topic of people not signing off of their accounts when they use your computer at a later date—I thought to myself, why does this have to be such a “chick thing”? After she finally got off the computer, I sat down and crafted an account for myself.

The practical applications for this have already started to pay off. Instead of the usual boards, mine are history and education themed. A great many of my fellow “Pinners” are teachers who use the site as a means of anonymously sharing ideas and pedagogical techniques. If I were attempting to teach a unit on Abraham Lincoln to a gaggle of fourth graders, for example, I have ready access to step-by-step instructions on how to glue cotton balls together to form a beard or how to craft a stove-pipe hat out of black construction paper. Here’s where Pinterest’s drawbacks become readily apparent.

The largest detractor from Pinterest is the fairly limited scope of its educational usage. While my wife can (and does) spend countless hours scouring the boards of colleagues and complete strangers alike, stealing management methods, borrowing craft activities and waxing melodically over “cute ideas”, my interactions have been far more limited. Going into the upcoming school year, I will be teaching primarily Advanced Placement-level sophomores. These students are especially adept at outwardly loathing arts and craft activities. But where there is a will, there is a way. Or several.

Since it first burst out into the limelight, Pinterest has spread faster than Snooki’s arrest caught on tape. While many stereotypes  are currently afflicting it, if more and more secondary social studies teachers begin to employ it, its usefulness will increase a hundredfold. I, myself, will be valiantly attempting to further the cause on Pinterest. Search my boards for cool ideas, or share some new ones with me. I’ll be doing so myself as @MrLHistory.